coin guide

What Are Bullion Coins?

Bullion coins are legal tender coins that a government mint strikes to a stated weight and fineness, and they trade for their metal content at a small premium over melt value. The 1 oz American Gold Eagle is the model: federal law fixes it at 33.931 grams containing one troy ounce of fine gold. Bullion gold coins such as Canada's Maple Leaf and South Africa's Krugerrand follow the same pattern.

How a Grading Service, a Mint and a Regulator Define a Bullion Coin

Three kinds of authority define the term, and they agree. In its glossary, PCGS calls a bullion coin a legal tender coin that trades at a slight premium to its melt value, "melt" being trade slang for a coin's intrinsic value.

The Royal Mint defines a bullion coin as one made from precious metal and sold at a premium over the spot price, usually gold or silver and sometimes platinum or palladium. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sorts physical metal into two categories. Bullion, in the CFTC's wording, is coins or bars of a specific weight and purity. Numismatic or collectible coins are rare or old coins and special proofs newly minted as collectibles.

What U.S. Law Fixes: Weight, Metal and Legal Tender

For U.S. coins the definition isn't a matter of opinion, because Congress wrote the specifications into 31 U.S.C. 5112. That statute sets some coins down to a tenth of a millimeter and leaves others to the Treasury Secretary.

Congress went as far as the wording on the coin and the source of the metal. A Silver Eagle must carry the inscriptions "1 Oz. Fine Silver" and "One Dollar" and have a reeded edge. Gold for the Gold Buffalo has to be mined from natural deposits in the United States and bought within one year after the month the ore was mined. When you compare bullion silver coins, start with that stated content.

Coins issued under the statute are legal tender, and the Treasury must sell Gold Eagles at the market value of the bullion at the time of sale, plus the cost of minting, marketing and distributing them. That clause is the PCGS definition written as law: metal value first, then the cost of making and moving the coin.

Face Value Versus Metal Value

The $50 on a 1 oz Gold Eagle is a legal denomination, not a price. Because the law ties the sale price to the market value of the bullion, a $50 gold coin isn't a $50 purchase. Face value makes a Gold Eagle legal tender, and its ounce of gold sets what it trades for.

Other mints say so directly. The Austrian Mint gives the gold Vienna Philharmonic a face value ranging from 100 euros for the 1 oz coin to 4 euros for the 1/25 oz, "although the material value of the coin is far higher."

A face value isn't even required. The South African Mint says Krugerrands are legal tender but have no face value, so no denomination appears on the coin, only its gold content. Whatever a foreign coin says on its face, it doesn't count here: under 31 U.S.C. 5103, foreign gold or silver coins aren't legal tender for debts in the United States.

22-Karat and 24-Karat Coins Hold the Same Ounce

A Gold Eagle isn't pure gold, and it still contains its full troy ounce. In the PCGS listing its metal is 91.67% gold, 3% silver and 5.33% copper, which is 22 karat, with the alloy added on top of the gold.

Here's the arithmetic. A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams, and the Gold Eagle weighs 33.931 grams. Take 91.67% of 33.931 grams and you get 31.10 grams of gold. Silver and copper make up the other 2.83 grams.

South Africa's Krugerrand follows the same plan with a different recipe: Rand Refinery describes it as 22 carat, 9167 parts pure gold and 833 parts copper. The Gold Buffalo and the Gold Maple Leaf take the other route. Both are 24 karat, and the Royal Canadian Mint lists the Maple Leaf at 31.11 grams of 99.99% pure gold.

So read the fine weight stamped on a Gold Eagle or Krugerrand, not the scale. A 22-karat coin weighs more than its stated ounce, and a 24-karat Buffalo or Maple Leaf lands almost exactly on it.

How a Proof Differs From a Bullion Strike

A proof is a different product made from the same design. In the PCGS definition of a proof, the coin is usually struck from specially prepared dies on a specially prepared planchet, usually with more than one blow, on presses running at slower speeds and higher striking pressure. The result is much sharper detail than a business strike, the trade's name for a regular strike.

The mirror look comes from the dies. Their fields, the flat background, are often polished while the recessed areas are left rough, so in the PCGS description the design comes out "frosted" against reflective fields. Matte, Roman and satin proofs have no mirror finish, so shine alone doesn't settle the question.

The label does. NGC grades on a scale of 1 to 70 and marks coins struck for circulation MS, for Mint State, and proofs struck for collectors PF. The CFTC places newly minted special proofs with collectibles, not bullion. That's why a proof Gold Eagle and a bullion Gold Eagle can carry different prices: proof coins are valued on finish and mintage as well as metal.

Where Bullion Ends and Collectible Coins Begin

Numismatic is the trade's word for collectible. In a CFTC customer advisory, the agency cautions that numismatic coins can be difficult to value objectively and that the market for proofs or rare coins isn't very liquid. A Gold Eagle has a public reference point in the gold price. A rare coin doesn't.

You'll also meet the term semi-numismatic. The CFTC and FINRA call it "a made-up industry term" with no special meaning, used for coins that are sold as collectible but typically aren't rare and are likely harder to sell than bullion. The CFTC recognizes two categories, not three, so ask which one a coin's price is based on.

The line can move, though, because bullion coins are collected too. In a 2025 article, PCGS notes that the American Silver Eagle has sold more than 600 million coins since its debut in 1986 as a bullion coin, and it's a collector series as well. Once a Silver Eagle sits in a PCGS or NGC holder, its condition joins its silver in the price.

Rounds and Bars Compared With Coins

Bullion is the wider term. In PCGS usage it covers coins, ingots and private issues that trade below, at or slightly above their intrinsic metal value, and only in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. A bullion coin is the legal tender member of that family.

A round is the piece people mistake for one. Silver rounds are privately made and carry no face value, however closely one resembles a Silver Eagle. They aren't legal tender either: 31 U.S.C. 5103 gives that status to United States coins and currency. Bars are bullion in the CFTC's sense, a specific weight and purity, with no denomination at all. Coins, rounds and bars all appear in silver bullion and in gold.

What a U.S. Mint coin adds is a specification set in law and legal tender status, not metal. An ounce of fine silver is the same ounce in a Silver Eagle, a round or a bar.

How the Price Is Built: Spot, Premium and Spread

A bullion coin's price has two parts: metal and premium. The CFTC and FINRA define the spot price as the cash price for immediate delivery of physical metal, quoted in dollars per troy ounce. Our live price charts track it. The premium is the amount charged over spot, and The Royal Mint, for one, says its bullion prices are the live spot price with a premium added.

Selling works from the other side. In the CFTC and FINRA description, metal is sold above the spot price and bought back below it, and the difference between the two prices is the spread. Each seller sets its own.

That CFTC and FINRA advisory gives two checks to run before you buy. Multiply the metal's weight by the current spot price and compare that figure with the price you're quoted. Then ask how much you'd receive if you had to sell the metal back tomorrow.

IRA and Tax Treatment of Bullion Coins

Federal tax law starts by treating any coin as a collectible that an IRA can't buy, then makes exceptions. 26 U.S.C. 408(m) excepts the Gold Eagles, the Silver Eagle, U.S. platinum coins and state-issued coins, along with gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion that meets the fineness a futures contract market requires. Section 408(m) names the Gold Eagles by their paragraph in the coinage law, not by purity, which is why a 22-karat coin qualifies.

The IRS says IRA bullion must be in the physical possession of a bank or an IRS-approved nonbank trustee, not at home. Outside an IRA, net capital gains from selling collectibles such as coins are taxed at a maximum 28% rate.

We're not a registered investment advisor and can't give individual investment or tax advice, so speak with a tax professional or financial advisor.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is gold bullion vs gold coin?

Gold bullion is gold priced on its weight and purity in any form, whether bar, round or coin. A gold coin is one of those forms, and only some gold coins are bullion. A 1 oz Gold Eagle or Maple Leaf is. A rare or old gold coin or a special proof sits in the CFTC's collectible category.

Where can I buy precious metals?

Local coin shops, online marketplaces and auctions all sell precious metals, and the checks matter more than the channel. The CFTC notes that retail sellers of metal aren't regulated at the federal level and suggests checking a seller's complaint history with your state attorney general or securities regulator. For an online seller, the CFTC says to verify the physical address and how long the business has operated.

Can bullion coins be graded?

Yes. In PCGS grading, Mint State runs from MS-60 through MS-70 for a business strike coin that has never been in circulation, from one covered with marks at MS-60 to a flawless MS-70. NGC defines a 70 as a coin with no post-production imperfections at 5x magnification.

Bullion Coins on Our Two-Way Market

Our platform is a two-way market. Each product page shows a bid beside the ask, which answers the CFTC's sell-it-back-tomorrow question before you buy. Bullion Standard Pro gives members live, executable wholesale bid and ask pricing. We verify every item, and we guarantee that it's genuine and holds the weight, fineness and purity advertised.